Assessing the human health risk of Baltic Sea sea trout (Salmo trutta L.) consumption Halyna Tkachenko, Olha Kasiyan, Piotr Kamiñski, Natalia Kurhaluk Received – 19 March 2022/Accepted – 30 March 2022. Published online: 31 March 2022; ©Inland Fisheries Institute in Olsztyn, Poland Citation: Tkachenko, H., Kasiyan, O., Kamiñski, P., Kurhaluk, N. (2022). Assessing the human health risk of Baltic Sea sea trout (Salmo trutta L.) consumption. Fisheries & Aquatic Life 30, 27-43. Abstract. The current study assessed health risks posed by exposure to metals from the consumption of Baltic Sea trout (Salmo trutta L.). Concentrations of essential minerals in sea trout muscles were determined and compared with the physiological requirements of these minerals in Polish nutrition standards, recommended dietary allowances (RDA), and estimated average requirements (EAR). Chemical analyses indicated that sea trout was rich in phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium. The pattern significance gradation of the element concentrations was as follows: P>Ca>Mg>Na>K>Fe>Zn>Cu>Se>Mn>Co. Sea trout consumption can provide a considerable portion of the RDA of copper, magnesium, phosphorus, calcium, iron, and zinc. The ranking order of the mean toxic element concentrations in sea trout muscle tissues was As>Pb>Cd>Hg. Potential risk estimated with the hazard quotient (HQ) indicated that most metals posed no health risk because they did not exceed reference doses at HQ < 1. For carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic effects, the maximum allowable rates of sea trout consumption were sufficiently high to ensure human health. According to these data, the consumption of farmed sea trout from the Baltic Sea in the northern region of Pomerania, Poland did not pose a risk to human health. Keywords: fish consumption, sea trout, Baltic Sea, health risk, human health risk assessment, consumption limits, target hazard quotients (THQs) Introduction The Baltic Sea is one of the world’s most intensively exploited seas with constant traffic and densely pop- ulated catchment areas. Large rivers flow into the Baltic Sea from highly industrialized countries, and its coasts are used intensively for recreation. Many economic activities associated with the sea generate income for the inhabitants of this region (Krek et al. 2018, Raudsepp et al. 2019). Simultaneously, the Baltic Sea is a unique ecosystem, and its specific FISHERIES & AQUATIC LIFE (2022) 30: 27 - 43 Archives of Polish Fisheries DOI 10.2478/aopf-2022-0003 RESEARCH ARTICLE © Copyright by Stanis³aw Sakowicz Inland Fisheries Institute in Olsztyn. © 2022 Author(s). This is an open access article licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). H. Tkachenko Institute of Biology and Earth Sciences, Pomeranian University in S³upsk Arciszewski Str. 22b, 76-200 S³upsk, Poland O. Kasiyan Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University, Lviv, Ukraine P. Kamiñski Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruñ, Collegium Medicum in Bydgoszcz, Department of Medical Biology and Biochemistry, Department of Ecology and Environmental Protection, M. Sk³odowska-Curie St. 9, PL 85-094 Bydgoszcz, Poland P. Kamiñski University of Zielona Góra, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Department of Biotechnology, Prof. Z. Szafran St. 1, PL 65-516 Zielona Góra, Poland N. Kurhaluk [+] Department of Biology, Institute of Biology and Earth Sciences, Pomeranian University in S³upsk Arciszewski Str. 22b, 76-200 S³upsk, Poland E-mail: natalia.kurhaluk@apsl.edu.pl; Tel +48 511 311 112